A Scratch On The Record
by Scriptpony
Summary: Vinyl Scratch goes on a walk and soon begins to remember her past, but why?


A Scratch On The Record

Chapter 1

Vinyl sat on her elevated stool in front of her practice turn table. It was a bit strange sitting on her flanks instead of standing on her hooves but was also strangely comfortable. She used her horn to levitate a record on tho the table and put the needle down; a recently released techno track began to play. She turned the disc with her front hooves a couple of times before she stopped for a moment. Something was wrong. She looked out her window, the full moon in the upper right corner. She got up off of her stool and walked up to the window and began to stare at the moon. Something was different, but she couldn't quite put her hooves on what it was, but it had her feeling empty inside.

She looked away from the window and glanced across her apartment; it was mostly devoid of furniture aside from her turntable with stool and a red sofa that was curved in a "U" shape behind a rectangular glass coffee table with black metal legs. She had a large rug that took up most of the space in her living room floor that had various colors and shapes in random places all over it with a red background. Vinyl let out a sigh, something about the dark room had somehow managed to get her down.

"Was that it?" she thought to herself "Or is it...something...else?" She looked back out the window but this time at the bottom instead of the moon, "Manehatten..." She saw the street light lit cobblestone roads. It was mostly vacant due to the time of night except a pair of earth ponies walking down it."Is it Manehatten that's making me feel like this?" She thought back to when she was a young filly, and remembered the fruit stand that used to sit about a dozen streetlights perpendicular to the road that lead to her house she grew up in away from her apartment, she was surprised at herself for remembering the location so vividly, and then remembered the taste of the strawberries that were sold there. She had always loved strawberries, but the ones that were sold at the stand..., they were far from the best strawberries she have eaten, but she remembered their taste exactly. Vinyl turned and walked towards her door,almost subconsciously as if she were sleepwalking.

She put her front hoof on the door and pushed it open and walked down the hallway to the elevator. She pushed the "down" button but why was she doing this? She felt like she was walking to bed but knew she was going down to the lobby. Everything was beginning to get blurry and distorted. The elevator dinged and opened up, and Vinyl stepped inside and pushed the "L" key on the control station and the elevator began to go down. Vinyl gasped, the feeling of descent was amplified by her tired state and made it seem as she was falling. The sensation didn't stop until the elevator dinged and opened at the lobby at which point Vinyl almost screamed.

She stepped out of the elevator and walked into the lobby. It had a few scattered tables and a glass chandelier in the center. She glanced at the building manager who dozed off and was laying on the front desk. One of his eyes opened and he sat up surprised.

"Hello Ms. Scratch." he said with a yawn. Vinyl let out a sheepish grin as she waved a hoof at him and continued to walk towards the door which she pushed open. Vinyl had always loved the cool early Autumn breeze but something was different. The cool breeze irritated her skin almost like the feeling of her teeth sinking into a cold drink or ice cream. She pulled back at the initial feeling but it gradually became bearable as she continued to walk towards...what was she walking towards? She didn't know,but she was drawn to keep moving like there was an outside force controlling her. She made a left turn at the nearest intersection.

Time seemed to be distorted, and the next thing she knew she was staring at a mostly ruined wooden cottage surrounded by a few bare trees. Vinyl blinked and saw an image of the cottage restored and the trees bearing bright orange leaves, and it all came back to Vinyl, it was the house she lived in from as far as she could remember up until when she was about 10. A tear rolled down Vinyl's cheek as she held a smile and everything flickered back to reality. Memories leaked into her thoughts. She turned around and walked towards a hill in the distance that overlooked a lake. She sat on the hill and looked down at the lake and saw how the moon reflected on it. It was beautiful how the wind made ripples which distorted the shining white orb. It flickered, and the craters that made The Mare In The Moon returned both on the moon and it's reflection on the lake. Suddenly she heard a voice to her right:

"Wow...the moon sure is...beautiful, huh sis?"

Vinyl was shocked, but felt strangely comfortable. She turned to her right, being not controlled but guided by her vivid memories. Her movements were seamless; suddenly she was struck with the realization that the pony talking was in fact, her sister, Ivory Scratch. Her sister's name echoed in her mind like the lost memory she was. Vinyl felt her lips begin to open.

"Yeah..." she whispered

Vinyl paused. She was surprised how squeaky and high pitched her voice was, but her mouth opened back up.

"Do you think...that the legend of Nightmare Moon is true?"

"Nah, that's just an old mare's tale. Y'know, to tell kids to be good _or_ you're off to the moon"

They both giggled. Vinyl was still conscious in her own mind, but felt her memories parallel; overlapping in her mind. It was strange, but her two minds were in sync and she could process them both easily somehow. Vinyl felt her body slouch over, putting the length of her front hooves on the ground in front of her in a yawning stretch.

"I wanna go to the moon." she stated in a confident interruption to their giggling, which resumed louder shortly after.

"I wouldn't think that would be a problem." Ivory stated, putting her hoof up at an acute angle. "It's not like ponies need air, food, or water, after all."

"That stuff is..._like...so overrated!_" Vinyl said in impression of cliché spoiled fillies on television.

They giggled some more.

"Now Vin, you can't believe stereotypes of fill- who am I kidding, you sounded _exactly_ like one of those snotty rich fillies at my school!" Ivory hoof-bumped her sister in approval. Vinyl was certainly happy to relive these memories, but had no idea why she did.

Ivory sat up and in a serious tone, said:

"Hey Vin, there is something I want to show you, but you have to promise not to tell mom."

Vinyl's facial expression turned serious and replied: "Sure sis…what is it?" Ivory began walking towards a large oak tree, signaling her sister to follow, which she did. Ivory levitated a stone at the base of the tree which revealed a pitch black knife with strange engravings on it. Vinyl jumped back, and shouted a bit louder then she intended.

"A **knife**? Ivory you can't keep this we could get in tro-"Ivory put her hoof up to Vinyl's mouth and shushed her.

"You have to trust me, I will never use this knife. **Ever.**" Ivory said reassuringly, calming her sister down. Ivory moved her hoof off Vinyl's mouth.

"Alright…"Vinyl said with doubt. Ivory grabbed the knife with her hooves.

"For some reason, I can't levitate it, but look at those marks"

Vinyl stared at the marks, amazed by their lucidity, and felt her mind slip away and be consumed by her memories with the dark feeling the knife brought. It was just like she felt back at her apartment. Everything began to feel less like a trance and more like a dream. In an attempt to remove the strange guilty pleasure the knife brought, Vinyl tried to change the subject.

"Uh, sis it's getting late. We should go back inside." She said awkwardly

"Yeah you're right, mom is probably worried sick." Ivory replied and began walking towards the house.

Vinyl stood behind and felt her legs shake. She knew enough at her age of 8 try not to bring up the subject, but never got a straight up answer.

"Ivory, what happened to dad?"

Author's note:

Yep, here it is. Sorry this was so short, but I wanted to insert some cliffhangers and questions that are better to be answered later in the story. I must say though, the next chapter will probably be significantly larger than this. I first started this out as an attempt at a semi decent fic, but now that I spent some time coming up with the plot, I am actually a little bit excited to work on this. It probably won't be long until I post the next chapter, which will hopefully be the point where the plot starts to build a bit more. Anyways, sorry for this chapter that probably sucked, but I must assure you that the story will get better and I hope you stick it out. I am going to try not to rip of SoundofRainfall, which I don't think I am at this point, though I will be doing the early story in a similar style to "The Endless Sky"'s early chapters. Basically each chapter jumping a few years in Vinyl's life to get to important events until some point in the story. Again, this note is really long and will probably end up being longer than the chapter if I don't stop now, so see you soon.


End file.
